Egypt’s Shiites raged by belly dancer who raves to song praising prophet’s daughter

A belly dancer stirred a wave of anger among Shiites in Egypt as she appeared in an Egyptian movie raving to a song praising Fatima, the daughter of Prophet Muhammad and the wife of Imam Ali, highly venerated in Shiite Islam, who called for banning the movie to screen in theaters.

Baha Anwar Mohammed, spokesman of Egyptian Shiites, has condemned belly dancer Dina for her performance in the film “Abdo Mouta” to be offensive and highly disrespectful to the People of the House (Ahl al-Bayt), the family of Prophet Muhammad, particularly important to Shia Muslims.

Baha was quoted by Egypt’s al-Sabah newspaper as saying that the country’s Shiites will file a complaint to the general prosecutor against the film demanding to ban it from screening as it insults prominent Islamic figures.

Shiites believe Imam Ali and the rest of Ahl al-Bayt as prophet’s successors. Baha called on Egypt’s Al-Azhar Islamic School and its Grand Mufti to condemn “such abuse” to the prophet’s family.

Dina, the belly dancer, denied her performance in the movie was meant to offend Islamic prominent figures.

Although the song “Virtuous Mother of Hasan and Husain” praises Fatima, the fact that a belly dancer dances to it was seen as highly inappropriate.

Muslims give several titles to Fatima to show their admiration for her.

She is referred to as Fatima Azahra, (the shinning one), Ummu Abeeha (Mother of her Father) and "al-Batul" (the chaste and pure one).

No official statistics are available regarding the number of Shietes in Egypt, but estimates put their population at less than 1 percent of the approximate 85 million population.

Egypt was often cautious of providing official data about its religious and ethnic groups for the fear of creating tensions.

Even when it comes to the Coptic Christians, the government has only released a report about their number recently estimating them at a little over five millions. The Copts rejected the figure and said their actual number was 15 to 18 millions